Purdue and Iowa State picked up huge, resume building wins on Saturday in what was a very busy day.

The Boilermakers got their biggest win of the season at Michigan. The win for Purdue is just its second over a team that is sure to make the tournament. It was Michigan's first loss at home all season.

Iowa State picked up its first away-from-home win of any significance when it completed the season sweep of Kansas State. The Cyclones now have four top 100 RPI wins (despite a gaudy 11-5 conference record), and should be safe if they can get one more. Teams with just four top 100 wins have received 13 at-large bids in the last 18 years, but that's out of 250 teams.

It was a tough day to be a conference leader. Temple, Harvard, New Mexico, Long Island, and Middle Tennessee all lost. Duke, Syracuse, Kansas, Belmont, Drexel, Murray State, Oral Roberts, Nevada and St. Mary's all were pushed to the brink.

Alabama put another nail into Mississippi State's coffin with a win in Tuscaloosa. The Bulldogs have lost five straight and travel to South Carolina next. They are only 2-6 on the road.

Northwestern kept its hopes alive with a one-point win at Penn State. The Wildcats don't have many good wins (just six top 100), but none of their 11 losses have come to non-contenders. They have a chance to make a statement next when Ohio State visits.

Saint Louis took its worst loss of the season at Rhode Island on Saturday. For a team with few good wins, that's not a good sign. Also in the A-10, Saint Joseph's played their way back onto the bubble with a win over Temple.

Notre Dame lost at St. John's, which is the fourth bad loss of the season for the Irish. It's also the first loss of any kind since January 16th.

Kansas clinched at least a tie for the Big 12 title with an overtime win over Missouri. The Jayhawks are continuing their push for a No. 1 seed.

St. Mary's won the West Coast title outright, ending an 11-year streak during which Gonzaga either won or shared the regular season title.

Mostly irrelevant fact of the day: The Ivy League has half its teams in the top 100 of the RPI. Conference USA, the Colonial, Missouri Valley, Pac-12 and West Coast conferences can't say that.

The new bracket and bubble watch are posted. There is a new no.1 seed. Michigan State takes over a spot on the top line, bumping Missouri, which lost for the second time this season to Kansas State.

Expect to see some jumbling of the top eight teams in the bracket as the three conference pairs in that group play each other. Each pair has a regular season game left, as well as a possible conference tournament game.

Cincinnati finally joins the bracket despite its putrid non-conference schedule. Their non-conference schedule ranking of 320 would be the second-worst ever to get an at-large bid. The record is 323, which is held by the 2006 George Washington team, which finished its season 26-2. The worst ranking for a team that was close to the bottom of the at-large pool was Air Force in 2004, which ranked 315th.

It's only the quality of its wins that has the Bearcats in at all, but before Cinci fans get too comfortable, teams with 5 top 50 RPI wins get left out routinely, so the Bearcats are not comfortably in the field at all.

As it stands right now, Cincinnati would also tie the record for the lowest RPI ever for an at-large team. New Mexico was also 74th back in 1999.

The committee very rarely rewards teams that only have three top 100 RPI wins. In the 18 years that I've been tracking the data, it's only happened five times, and not at all since 2003. Iowa State has a spot in this field though, despite just three top 100 wins, and all at home. VCU is in the same boat and also pushing for a spot. Colorado State is barely in the bracket, despite a top 30 RPI. I doubt the Rams will set the record for the highest rated team left out (21, Missouri State in 2006), but they have a chance to be in the team picture. The next highest ranked team left out was 30th.

Teams without at least one top 50 RPI win don't get picked very often. Clemson was chosen last year despite and 0-5 record against that group, but the Tigers were the first team picked since 2006 without a top 50 win. This bracket has two such teams (Saint Louis and Washington).

Looks like the NIT is going to be missing more than a few teams this year.

Seton Hall is off the list for now after the win over Georgetown last night. With potential bad losses Rutgers and DePaul left on the schedule, there's always the chance the Pirates could return.

Last week, I thought New Mexico had the best week of the season. That changed yesterday when Kansas State knocked off Missouri on the road, after winning at Baylor over the weekend. That's how you play yourself off the bubble.

Florida beat Auburn last night, but may have lost Will Yeguete for the season. He's not a big scorer for the Gators, but he is one of their better defensive players. It will be interesting to see how much they miss him.

Valparaiso clinched the Horizon League regular season title last night and will host the conference tournament. It's the Crusaders first conference title in eight years, and their first in the Horizon.

Binghamton finally got its first win of the season last night, and the Bearcats didn't beat just anyone, they took down league-leader Vermont.

Today's bracket is posted. The top two lines remain the same. A lot of shuffling happened below that.

The biggest news, I guess, is that I finally have a bracket with less than nine Big Ten teams in it. Minnesota's most recent loss has the Gophers on the outside looking in. Illinois is just a train wreck. Nobody has looked less like an NCAA tournament team than the Illini in the last few weeks.

They were replaced by Iowa State and Washington. Both teams are lacking in quality wins. They each have only three RPI top 100 wins. It's been nine years since the last time the committee took such a team, but of course, the season isn't over yet. They have never taken a team with just three top 100 wins and none in the top 50, but that's Washington at the moment. The field is bigger now. They have to take somebody.

The team making the biggest move up the bracket lately has been New Mexico. The Lobos had a great week last week, beating San Diego State on the road and UNLV at home. They now lead the Mountain West by two games.

Notre Dame continues its climb up the bracket as well. The Irish extened their winning streak to eight games with an overtime win at Villanova.

It was a rough weekend in Conference USA as both Southern Miss and Memphis suffered their worst losses of the season. The Golden Eagles fell at Houston, while the Tigers blew a big lead at home to UTEP.

Mississippi State is also falling apart at the wrong time. The Bulldogs lost three in a row, including games to non-tournament teams Georgia and Auburn. Those are their worst losses of the season.

The bracket buster took place last weekend, and as usual, no brackets were actually busted. Murray State picked up an impressive win over St. Mary's, which will give the Racers a bit of a cushion should it need an at-large bid. Long Beach State could have done the same, but couldn't hold on at Creighton.

It's February, the home stretch of the season, and today's bracket features a lot of teams going in the wrong direction.

West Virginia lost three times since the last bracket was posted, and fell six spots this week. The Mountaineers lost at St. John's and at home to suddenly resurgent Pittsburgh, sandwiched around that controversial loss at Syracuse.

Seton Hall is also fading fast. The Hall got off to a great start this season, but now has lost five in a row. To make matters worse, the opponents that mark their best wins - UConn, West Virginia and Dayton - are also struggling.

The Huskies have lost three i row and five of their last seven. The addition of Ryan Boatright should help, once he works his way into form.

It's not all bad news for the Big East, along with Pitt, Notre Dame is coming on and has crawled onto the bracket in the PIGs. The Irish have very little margin for error though. Despite a nice collection of wins (Syracuse at home, and at Louisville, UConn and Seton Hall), they are only 7-8 vs the top 200 teams in the RPI, and that's a very negative indicator for tournament selection.

Northwestern is stll hanging on by a thread after a loss to Purdue at home this week (a much needed win for the Boilers, by the way). The best thing working for the Cats is that Purdue is the lowest rated team to beat them this year, and they have a couple good wins, although one of them -- Seton Hall -- looks worse every day.

Honestly, the fact that Notre Dame and Northwestern, along with Colorado State and Oklahoma, which round out the First Four, are in a bracket is reason enough to go back to the 64-team field.

Florida made the biggest move up this week by filling in a couple of holes in their tournament profile. Their sweep of the Mississippi schools, including a win at Ole Miss, gave them two more top 50 RPI wins (three total now) and their first win of any consequence away from home.

Dropping off the bracket this week were BYU, Texas, Marshall, UCF and NC State. Coming on were Notre Dame, Colorado State, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Saint Louis. All ten belong in the NIT.

Dayton almost fell off too after losing twice this week, including a real head-scratcher at home to RPI No. 263 Rhode Island.

Michigan State lost more than a game to Illinois last night. The Spartans' heart and soul, Draymond Green, limped off the floor late with an apparent knee injury. If that is serious and causes him to miss significant time, that will be a big blow to Michigan State's chances of a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

The highest rated team in the RPI not in my bracket is No. 47 Arkansas. The Hogs are the ultimate Home Court Hero, with a 16-1 home record. The Hogs are 16-0 in Fayetteville, and lost to Houston in Little Rock, which the NCAA considers a home game. They are the only team in college basketball with at least a .500 record that has yet to win off its home floor.

The next bracket will be posted on Tuesday as we move to a twice-a-week schedule.

Readers are great. Many have pointed out that Davidson won at the Sprint Center, not at the Phog. Also, that Michigan St lost to UNC by 35 in 2008 to UNC before losing to the Heels again in the title game that season (by a more respectible 17 points).

One of last week's four number one seeds went down this week, but remains on the top line in my latest bracket. Baylor picked up its first loss of the season at Kansas, but still has a strong enough profile to merit a one-seed. It's not like there's a lot of shame in losing at Phog Allen. If you had to win there to be a No. 1, we wouldn't have any. Well, except Davidson.

Indiana, Michigan State and North Carolina all had difficult weeks. Both the Hoosiers and Spartans lost twice. Minnesota took down IU in Bloomington, something Kentucky and Ohio State failed to do, which bolstered the Gophers precarious spot in the bracket. The Buckeyes got their revenge on Indiana on Sunday. Sparty lost to Northwestern and Michigan.

That shuffling leaves Illinois on top of the league standings for now. The Big Ten continues to dominate the RPI and the bracket, with a whopping nine teams in the field this week. Even placing eight teams in the final bracket in March would be remarkable. However, as the teams at the top beat each other up, you have to wonder if any team will create enough separation to stay in contention for a top seed at the end.

Last week, I got a lot of grief for having Duke ahead of North Carolina on the bracket, although that was before the 33-point pounding the Heels took at Florida State. I have not been able to find a team even make the championship game, let alone win it, that suffered that big a loss in the regular season.

That win by the Seminoles not only put them into this week's bracket, but also strengthened the cases for the tournament quality teams that beat them earlier.

New Mexico is out of the bracket this week, despite not losing. Sometimes, what you do impacts your position. Sometimes, what your previous opponents do impacts the quality of your profile, even if you had a good week otherwise. And sometimes, other teams near you in the pecking order just had better weeks that you did.

BYU fell into the First Four, which if it actually happens in March, will put the committee in a bit of a predicament. Typically, they like to put the PIG winners into Friday-Sunday sites, but BYU cannot play on Sunday. In this bracket, that means a quick turnaround and a long-distance flight from Dayton to Portland if the Cougars win. Of course, the same applies to BYU's opponent, Stanford, even though the Cardinal have no qualms with playing on Sunday.

It's another big day for teams on the bubble and many fates may be decided. Still, it's important not to overreact to one game, and also to keep in mind that you can't analyze one team in a vacuum. All of these teams are to some degree dependent on what other teams do.

Boston College plays Clemson in the ACC is what many are incorrectly calling a play-in game. The winner helps themselves and the loser hurts themselves, but it will still be possible for either or both teams to make the field or miss.

Virginia Tech may not have to beat Florida State to get in, but a neutral court win over a sure tournament team would really help their cause.

Michigan State, Penn State, Colorado and New Mexico all have a chance to knock off highly-rated teams and give themselves the kind of win that might separate themselves from other teams in contention for spots in the field.

In the SEC, Georgia plays Alabama in another proclaimed "play-in game" that isn't. Georgia can still make the tournament with a loss, but neither team is guaranteed anything with a win.

Today brings a festival of hoops with a lot of important games, most of which involve teams feeling very bubbly.

Oklahoma State's at-large hopes are hanging by a thread, but the Cowboys can make a big splash today by knocking off No. 1 seed Kansas in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals. Yesterday, they eliminated Nebraska from any at-large consideration in the opening round.

Colorado survived a scare against Iowa State to keep in the hunt for as well. They take on Kansas State today, looking to beat the Wildcats for a third time. They probably need to.

In the ACC, Boston College and Virginia Tech get underway hoping to avoid a potentially fatal bad loss. The Eagles play Wake Forest, while the Hokies will take on Georgia Tech.

Michigan State and Penn State are in the same boat. Those teams are each three games over .500, and that record might be hard for the committee to swallow, regardless of their schedules. A loss today to a Big Ten bottom-feeder would probably do them in.

Tennessee and Georgia also face league also-rans in the opening round of the SEC tournament. Again, avoiding a bad loss at this point is crucial to their chances.

If Marquette hasn't already punched their ticket, they certainly can with a win over Louisville today in the 15th round of the Big East tournament. Or something like that. I lose count.

One of the more interesting conference tournaments gets going in earnest today in Las Vegas. There is a lot at stake in the Mountain West. Colorado State and New Mexico play in the 4-5 game. Both teams have at-large hopes, but each might need to beat BYU to make that happen. That won't be possible for the loser.

The Cougars will spend the weekend trying to prove to the committee that they are still worthy of a high seed after the loss of Brandon Davies. They open with last-place TCU today.

San Diego State still has just two losses this season, both to BYU, and might have a shot at a No. 1 seed if they can run the table this weekend and get some help.

And finally, Washington gets a third shot at in-state rival Washington State. The Cougars swept the season series, and welcome Klay Thompson back to the lineup after a one-game suspension. Washington lost three of its last four Pac 10 games, including home games to WSU and USC.